Are you thinking about taking a sabbatical? 10 benefits for your life
The concept of sabbatical year may not be very popular for those people who confuse life with work, but the truth is that it is one more resource that can help us both to gain health and to evolve personally.
Regrettably, Sometimes the sabbatical year is confused with simple inactivity and the inability to plan a viable work project (the latter being, of course, something that does not depend entirely on willpower or effort). No: spending a few months without paid work or receiving formal training does not have to be a waste of time.
We'll see now the main advantages that people who decide to take a sabbatical can enjoy before starting a university career or entering definitively in the labor market.
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The advantages of taking a sabbatical
Moving from a period of activity to a stage in which free time predominates can lead to certain problems related to lack of planning and mismanagement of expectations.
But that, in many cases, is compensated for by the advantages offered by the sabbatical year.
1. Time to train yourself in a self-taught way
The majority of university degrees or regulated postgraduate education orient towards specializations that, in one way or another, limit the range of learning to which we can choose. This is positive in many aspects, since becoming an expert in something requires the need to focus on a specific field of knowledge.
The sabbatical year allows us get out of this dynamic and leave us time to learn on our own or with the help of face-to-face or online courses. The duration of a year allows us to go deep enough in a new subject to continue training in it in a more fluid way when we go to combine it with work.
2. Travel, the great gift for the senses
To travel well it is necessary to have time to discover all the secrets of what is visited. The sabbatical year gives us the opportunity to make several trips, either using saved money or resorting to volunteer programs They offer free stay in exchange for several weekly work hours.
3. The possibility of learning languages
Another reason why the sabbatical year it's not like being around all day doing nothing is that it leaves us a wide margin to learn languages.
In fact, if we put enough time and effort into it, the results after spending 11 or 12 months learning a language starting from the most complete ignorance are usually surprising, especially if we already master one that looks like this in grammar or vocabulary
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4. You can meet more people
Sometimes we forget one of the most important aspects of life that are reduced when we work or study intensively: social relations.
Whether to do networking from a professional perspective or to extend the circle of friends , the sabbatical year allows us to enjoy moments and perfect spaces to get in touch with people with interests similar to ours. Attend festivals, conferences, make hangouts ... there are many contexts suitable for socializing.
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5. It impels us to take control of our lives
Although it seems strange, leaving the circuit of regulated training and full-time work helps us gain power over our actions and decisions. This is because For the first time we have almost total freedom to prioritize objectives and draw plans, something that does not happen in the other two scenarios.
6. Offers an oasis of family reconciliation
If for years communication within the family has been suffering due to the lack of time together, this is the ideal time to reconcile or simply to get back in touch with and strengthen the affective bond that unites us to our parents, mothers, brothers , etc.
Before giving yourself a break, remember ...
Now that we have seen the advantages and benefits associated with the gap year, it is good to review the aspects that must be taken into account before opting for this option.
Mainly, we must devote efforts to prepare the sabbatical year in two senses: save and plan .
Having an economic mattress is necessary even in those cases in which we do not have to make projects that require large expenses, because if you need money for unforeseen events, we are more exposed to not having a full-time job.
On the other hand, planning with a prudential time is essential because if we do not do it, we will spend the year wasting many weeks and simply "embedding" some significant events in our calendar from time to time, without forming a cohesive whole. This last option is an incorrect way to imagine the sabbatical year, a period characterized not by free time or rest , but for the freedom to choose where we want to go.
